The Five Senses

We learn about the world through our five senses. Try these simple tasks to excite the senses of your students.

All Senses

Stimulate discussion by taking the class for a 15-minute walk, barefoot if possible. Encourage the students to listen, touch, observe (details, colour) or smell. Back in the classroom, brainstorm their experiences under the appropriate headings.

Cook popcorn. Compare it before and after it was cooked. Observe how it changes, smell it, feel it, hear it and, best of all, taste it! A sense sensation!

Seeing

Remove familiar objects from the classroom when the students aren’t looking. Can they solve the missing object mystery?

Play ‘shadow tag’. In an appropriate area, have the students take turns to try to step on their partners’ shadows.

In pairs, one student guides his/her blindfolded partner on a simple walk. Can the partner guess what path they took when the blindfold is removed?

Place a variety of objects on a tray. Cover it with a cloth and then reveal it to the students for a set time (e.g. 10 seconds). How many objects can they remember seeing? Alter the number of objects and the time viewed to provide different challenges.

Smell

Poke holes in the lids of small containers. Fill them with small amounts of strongly-scented mystery items (e.g. spices, onion, lemon peel) or strongly-scented liquids squeezed onto cotton wool balls (e.g. perfume, vanilla essence, vinegar). Secure the lids and allow the students to smell each container and record their guesses. Instruct students to take only small sniffs.

Read the story The Gingerbread Man. Make gingerbread people, smelling the spices as they cook.

Make card cut-outs of gingerbread men. Colour and decorate them. Put glue on their tummies and sprinkle it with a fragrant spice (e.g. cinnamon, nutmeg). When they are dry, the students can use them as ‘scratch and sniff’ cards or bookmarks.

Construct a class ‘feely’ book. Glue or tape objects collected by the students to suit headings like ‘rough’, ‘smooth’, ‘hard’, ‘soft’, ‘lumpy’ etc.

Place a variety of objects into a large bag (e.g. a pillowcase) or a box with a small hole cut in the top. Have a student feel one object in the bag without looking at it and describe it to the class. You can use familiar objects (e.g. a cup, a spoon, fruit, a leaf), more difficult objects (e.g. peanuts, foil, material) or objects with contrasting textures (e.g. rough, smooth, lumpy). To challenge the students, repeat the activity with the student wearing gloves to reduce the tactile information.

Hearing

Make simple ‘sound shakers’ using small containers with lids (e.g. film canisters, yoghurt containers). Half or quarter fill each container with different fillings (e.g. rice, sand, dried beans, pebbles). Secure the lids. Decorate each container with bright paints or magazine pictures, recording which filling is in each container. Compare the sounds the containers make when shaken. Can the students identify the fillings? Make simple tunes with the shakers.

Make a ‘string phone’. Poke a hole through the base of two yoghurt containers. Thread and knot a length of string to connect the two. The students find partners. The students in each pair stand at opposite ends of the room, each holding a container while keeping the string taut. (The string must be taut for the ‘phone’ to work). The students can take turns to listen and speak on the ‘phone’.

Taste

Pass different coloured jellybeans to a blindfolded partner. Can he/she guess the colour from the flavours?

Allow individual students or small groups to have a few Smarties (or similar lollies), a piece of lemon, a strip of grapefruit peel, a piece of apple or pear, a piece of potato and a few potato chips. On a chart or worksheet with the headings marked ‘sweet’, ‘sour’, ‘bitter’ and ‘salty’, have the students write the name of each food under the most appropriate heading.